Strain engineered high reflectivity DBRs in the deep UV

The maximum achievable reflectivity of current III-nitride Bragg reflectors in the UV-C spectral range is limited due to plastic relaxation of thick multilayer structures. Cracking due to a large mismatch of the thermal expansion and lattice constants between Al x Ga 1-x N/Al y Ga 1-y N alloys of different composition and the substrate at the heterointerface is the common failure mode. Strain engineering and strain relaxation concepts by the growth on a strain reduced Al 0.85 Ga 0.15 N template and the implementation of low temperature interlayers is demonstrated. A significant enhancement of the maximum reflectivity above 97% at a resonance wavelength of 270 nm due to an increase of the critical thickness of our AlN/Al 0.65 Ga 0.35 N DBRs to 1.45 μm (25.5 pairs) prove their potential. By comparing the growth of identical Bragg reflectors on different pseudo-templates, the accumulated mismatch strain energy in the DBR, not the dislocation density provided by the template/substrate, was identified to limit the critical thickness. To further enhance the reflectivity low temperature interlays were implemented into the DBR to partially relief the misfit strain. Relaxation is enabled by the nucleation of small surface domains facilitating misfit dislocation injection and glide. Detailed structural and optical investigations will be conducted to prove the influence of the LT-AlN interlayers on the strain state, structural integrity and reflectivity properties. Coherent growth and no structural and optical degradation of the Bragg mirror properties was observed proving the fully applicability of the relaxation concept to fabricate thick high reflectivity DBR and vertical cavity laser structures.